Steven Pienaar's Urgent Call for Bafana Bafana: Run in Behind
Steven Pienaar has seen this movie before. That might be why his message to Bafana Bafana ahead of their decisive World Cup clash with South Korea is so sharp, so simple, and so urgent: run in behind.
From his vantage point on X during South Africa’s 1-1 draw with Czechia in Atlanta, the former Everton and Tottenham Hotspur playmaker cut straight to the heart of what frustrated him.
“Why is there no running of the ball from Bafana? They all want the ball to feet, no deep runs,” he posted as the game unfolded.
South Africa had just clawed back a point, their first of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with an 83rd‑minute Teboho Mokoena penalty. They finished the match pressing for a winner, the momentum finally with them. The comeback, though, did not soften Pienaar’s stance.
When the whistle went, the praise came – but so did the warning.
“Well done boys. Now, on to the next. Please, next, we game we need breaking runs – please boys,” he added in a follow-up post.
A familiar knife-edge
The table tells its own story. Mexico sit clear at the top of Group A with six points. South Korea have three. Czechia and South Africa are locked on one point each, but Bafana trail on goal difference and sit bottom heading into their final group game in Guadalupe next Wednesday – a 3 a.m. Thursday kick-off back home.
It is a tightrope Bafana know all too well.
Pienaar was a central figure in South Africa’s 2010 World Cup campaign, the first on African soil. That side also went into their final group match with a single point from two games. They beat France 2-1 in Bloemfontein, a famous result that still lives vividly in the national memory, yet it was not enough. Goal difference shut the door on the last 16.
This time the margins are different. The tournament has expanded, the format has shifted, and third place could be enough to reach the round of 32. For a nation that has never reached the knockout stages in any of its four World Cup appearances, the opportunity is obvious – and so is the risk of letting it slip.
No Premier League stars, but a rising home game
There is no current Premier League name to hang this campaign on. After Lyle Foster’s relegation with Burnley, Bafana arrive at this World Cup without an English top-flight presence in the squad.
Yet that absence tells only part of the story. At home, the game is thriving.
Mamelodi Sundowns have turned domestic dominance into continental authority, lifting a second CAF Champions League title in the 2025-26 season. In the second leg of the final in Rabat, it was Mokoena who struck the decisive goal against AS FAR – the same midfielder who kept South Africa alive from the penalty spot in Atlanta.
The link is hard to ignore. The players driving South African club football to new heights are now being asked to carry the national side into territory it has never reached.
Runs, risk and a moment of truth
That is where Pienaar’s demand comes in. He is not talking about effort. He is talking about intent.
Too many passes to feet. Not enough players willing to spin in behind, to drag defenders out of shape, to create the chaos that opens space for creators and finishers. Against Czechia, Bafana eventually found a way back, but for long spells their attacks unfolded in front of the defence, rather than slicing through it.
Against South Korea, that cannot be the pattern. The Asian side already have three points and the kind of sharp, organised structure that punishes predictability. If Bafana stay in front of them, South Korea will stay comfortable.
South Africa stand on a familiar ledge: one point from two games, one match to save a campaign. The difference this time is that the door to the knockouts is not bolted shut; it is ajar.
Whether they burst through it may come down to something as basic – and as demanding – as what Steven Pienaar keeps asking for: who is brave enough to run beyond, and who is bold enough to find them?
